3.

3 What and
how to teach
grammar?
http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2013/09/13/fun-cartoon-for-english-teachers-a-tense-situation/
How best to teach grammar: explicit and
implicit approaches
Explicit teaching Implicit teaching
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Grammar rules are Grammar rules are not
explained: explanations + explained. Students are
focused practice provided with opportunities to
hear, read and use the correct
grammatical forms

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• Krashen´s (1999): grammar is best acquired implicitly,
through comprehensible input (listening and reading).
Connection with the “Input Hypothesis” (Krashen, 1985).
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• Evidence showing that students who receive explicit grammar
instruction perform better than those who do not (see Norris
and Ortega, 2001).
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• Ideally, we should mix both types of procedures (implicit and
explicit).
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!
Presenting and explaining grammar
Some guidelines and tips (Ur, 2012: 80-81):
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• Place grammar explanations towards the beginning of the lesson.
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• Avoid starting with an isolated phrase on the board and then
explaining the target item. Instead, provide students with examples
of the target item in meaningful contexts before explaining it.
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• Both say and write the examples.
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• Teach both form and meaning. If appropriate, use pictures or realia
to make the explanation memorable. 4
 !
• Decide whether to use grammatical terminology depending on
your situation and students´age.
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• Obvious exceptions should be noted but too many details may
confuse students.
!
• Use the L1 to explain the grammar, unless students are
proficient enough to understand the grammar explanation in
English.
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• If there are substantial differences between English and the
L1, it can be useful to compare and contrast the meanings of
the the structures in both languages.
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 !
!
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• Get feedback (don´t just say “do you understand”?)
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• You can follow an inductive process for teaching the grammatical
rule (i.e. giving first the examples and letting students work out
the rule for themselves) or a deductive process (i.e. giving the
rules yourself and then working on examples).

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!
TASK !
!
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Suggest and illustrate the explanation of the following
grammar points using first a deductive process and then an
inductive one. !
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- Past simple!
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- Reported speech!
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What might be the advantages and disadvantages of each
process? What aspects do we need to consider when
choosing one or the other?! 7

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• Does practice make perfect?
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• Why do students continue making
mistakes despite practice?
 !
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• One of the explanations for this phenomenon is the teachability
hypothesis (Pienemann, 1984): L2 learners acquire grammatical
structures in a fixed order, regardless of the order in which they are
taught.

• Thus, teaching a grammatical item for which the learner is not

• Nevertheless, there is evidence that practice improves performance.

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Practice may not make perfect but it definitely helps!
Consolidating and automatizing grammatical
knowledge

As noted by Ur (2012: 82), there are “students who do all the grammar
exercises perfectly, but then make mistakes in the same items when
they are composing their own free speech or writing”.

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!
• As teachers we should help students move from form-
focused practice (i.e. more controlled and accuracy-
oriented exercises) to meaning-focused practice where they
use the grammar in context.

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• Include both types of tasks (i.e. form-focused and
meaning-focused).

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!

More controlled exercises

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Exercises promoting free
use of grammar in context 12

(meaning-focused practice)
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!
TASK. Order the following exercises from the most to the least form-focused exercises. This means
that the last exercises should promote a higher use of grammar in context (meaning-focused practice).
1. Past tense 2 __________ 3. __________ 4. ___________ 5. ______________ 6. __________
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! 13
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!
KEY
More controlled exercises
(focus on form/
accuracy-oriented)

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Exercises promoting free
use of grammar in context 14

(meaning-focused practice)
! (Ur, 2012: 82-83)
Example of a course book grammar section
English Unlimited Intermediate, Unit 1 (B1+ Intermediate)!
https://www.cambridge.org/files/8613/7294/3064/9780521739894pre_p001-005.pdf

15
To what extent are these grammar
exercises effective? 16
Suggest three activities to work on present
perfect and order them from the more
controlled practice to the least controlled.

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3.4. Grammar
assessment
 Classic examples of grammar-test items
Closed-ended test items : These tests require one predetermined right answer.

• Multiple (or dual) choice

Advantages and
disadvantages?
For more examples, see Ur (2012: 84)
 Students write their own invented phrases, sentences
Open-ended test items
or longer passages and there is not one correct answer

Open-ended prompts:
• Open-ended sentence
completion
If I won the lottery……………………
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• Sentence-composition
Write three sentences comparing these two
people

Advantages and
disadvantages?
20

https://www.pinterest.es/pin/268738302735080362/
What are the advantages and disadvantages of each
grammar test type?

! Closed-ended Open-ended
!
✓ Quickly and easily graded. ✓ Students really show they can
! produce the required grammar item.
✗ Difficult to design. !
! ✗ More time consuming (it takes more
✗ Students might answer correctly, time to grade) and, sometimes, it´s
but this doesn´t mean they are able to difficult to assess.
produce the target grammar in their
own unguided output.
On the use of translation in grammar testing

Ur (2012: 86) - Underlining